Top 10 Baseball Books

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Top 10 Baseball Books

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1asabel
Sep 16, 2007, 11:54 pm

I thought this would be an interesting group activity. I have read fewer than 10 baseball books, and I would definitely like to read more, but beyond the obvious classics, I can't tell which books are worth my time. I plan to read Ball Four, and probably the various David Halberstam classics. I also enjoyed the movie Eight Men Out, so I would probably enjoy the book. Beyond those, I really don't have any clue what books are truly great.

Here's the (very short) list of baseball books I have read ranked in order of preference:

1. Boys of Summer (One of my all-time favorite books in any genre)
2. Moneyball
3. Numbers game
4. Physics of baseball
5. When the Bad Guys Won (Probably not an all-time classic, but I am a Mets fan, so I enjoyed it)

Can you think of any baseball books that are undoubtedly classics?

2findundercan
Sep 25, 2007, 12:42 pm

Pete Palmer's Total Baseball is essential reading.

3KromesTomes
Sep 25, 2007, 12:52 pm

Definitely read some Bill James ... his Politics of Glory about the Hall of Fame and who belongs is fantastic, and you should also check out his Historical Baseball Abstract.

I also highly recommend Dollar sign on the muscle by Kevin Kerrane about scouting.

Pure Baseball would be perfect for you, as a certain Keith Hernandez wrote it and provides a pitch-by-pitch analysis of two "normal" baseball games ... this is by far the best analysis-type book by a former player I've ever read.

I had a hammer, Hank Aaron's autobiography was also very good.

And no self-respecting baseball fan/book lover should go through life w/o reading The Natural by Bernard Malamud.

5janehyde
Oct 23, 2007, 8:27 pm

I'm a high school librarian and so have a certain slant, but if you're at all interested in novels, Will Weaver's Billy Baggs novels are gripping. About a midwestern teenager who loves to play baseball but who is burdened with tragic family history and with a father who thinks getting in the hay is most important (as it certainly is for the family's immediate survival).

6tom1066
Nov 23, 2007, 10:29 pm

Following on the suggestion to read The Natural, there are some other baseball related novels that are worth reading:

Southpaw, Ticket for a Seamstitch, Bang the Drum Slowly, and It Looked Like For Ever by Mark Harris

Man on Spikes by Eliot Asinof

The Universal Baseball Association, Inc. by Robert Coover

Summerland by Michael Chabon

Play for a Kingdom by Thomas Dyja

8manny19096 First Message
Jan 29, 2008, 12:19 pm

The Fall of the 1977 Phillies: How a Baseball Team's Collapse Sank a City's Spirit just came out. It's all about how the city of Philadelphia takes its identity from the Phillies and just how it is that the city's negativity and inferiority complex manifest themselves in the Phillies. It's social history and baseball combined. Interesting stuff.

9krolik
Jan 29, 2008, 5:48 pm

Am surprised nobody's mentioned Ball Four. It's a missing part of the equation, while I absolutely agree with Glory of Their Times for the beautiful history, and Universal Baseball Association for the literary uses. Probably Coover's best book. The other great and, to date, untapped source of baseball literature would be the backs of baseball cards, which I think many of us have read religiously and can quote and compare with perverse degrees of exegesis. Somebody needs to write a book that does justice to it. Some smart agent is probably selling the project even as we speak.

10teelgee
Feb 11, 2008, 12:38 pm

The Brothers K by David James Duncan. A must-read.

11rocketjk
Edited: Feb 11, 2008, 1:08 pm

Fiction:
The Great American Novel by Philip Roth
The Natural by Bernard Malamud (but NOT the movie)
The Southpaw by Mark Harris
The Kid from Tomkinsville by John R. Tunis

Non-fiction:
Ball Four Jim Bouton
The Old Ball Game: How John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, and the New York Giants Created Modern Baseball by Frank Deford
Season of Glory by Ralph Houk and Robert Creamer (Houk's account of the 1961 season)
The Heart of the Order by Thomas Boswell
The Summer Game by Roger Angell (and all his others!)

I'm one of the few who didn't like Moneyball. I liked a lot of the information it presented, but didn't like the tone of the writing, as if Lewis thought he was "one of the guys".

12mensheviklibrarian
Mar 1, 2008, 1:25 pm

I'd like to second both the Roger Angell recommendation and Philip Roth's The Great American Novel, which is actually a satire of baseball novels.

13ZinnBeck
Mar 24, 2008, 1:07 pm

This message has been deleted by its author.

14lucienspringer
Mar 26, 2008, 7:41 pm

The Celebrant by Eric Greenberg is on the short list of greatest baseball fiction. Willie's Time by Charles Einstein is one of my favorite baseball biographies.

15TeacherDad
Mar 27, 2008, 11:46 pm

picked up The Kid: Ted Williams in San Diego today, looks like it focuses mainly on his minor league days...

16w_bishop
Edited: May 21, 2008, 3:05 pm

Ball Four by Jim Bouton, already mentioned.

Summer of '49 by David Halberstam.

The Only Game in Town by Fay Vincent. It's not the best writing because it was basically transcribed interviews, but the stories are great.

17MikeD
Edited: Jun 22, 2008, 3:20 pm

Two that I haven't seen listed here and I think would be enjoyed by all:

The Teammates by David Halberstam
the story of Ted Williams and his friends Johnny Pesky, Dom Dimaggio, and Bobby Doerr

Double Play by Robert B. Parker
Fictional novel with historical facts about Jackie Robinson as told by his bodyguard.
Pretty good book and it breaks down the games Jackie played in his first year with the Dodgers

18gesullivan
Jun 22, 2008, 6:41 pm

The Glory of Their Times by Lawrence S. Ritter

Diamonds in the Rough - The Untold History of Baseball by Joel Zoss and John Bowman

The Old Ball Game - Baseball's Beginnings - A Redefinition Book by Mark Alvarez

The Catcher Was a Spy - The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg by Nicholas Dawidoff

Moe Berg - Athlete, Scholar... Spy by Louis Kaufman, Barbara Fitzgerald, and Tom Sewell

19JIK
Feb 27, 2009, 1:00 pm

Doesn't look like anyone mentioned W.P. Kinsella. In my opinion he is among the finest of baseball authors. You can't go wrong with any of his short story collections, including The Further Adventures of Slugger McBatt, The Dixon Cornbelt League, etc.

I also enjoyed Ty Cobb's autobiography which, as you might expect, portrays this great player in a different light than usual.

Last, check out Troy Soos. He wrote several fun "Mickey Rawlings Mysteries" set in the 1910s and 1920s.

20margd
Edited: Jan 22, 2011, 2:42 pm

I am looking for name of a book on baseball ethics (or lack thereof) -- does anyone know it? It's for my nephew, now in HS, but a candidate for a college scholarship. He is working on a paper for school. Apparently, I once recommended the book to his mom, but can't now remember doing so, much less the title!

21upstairsgirl
Jan 22, 2011, 1:26 pm

Depending on how your tastes run, Wait Till Next Year might be an interesting read - it's Doris Kearns Goodwin's memoir about being a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, and I remember it as enjoyable, though I read it a really long time ago. I also quite enjoyed Watching Baseball Smarter but I'm not sure if that's at all the kind of thing you're looking for.

22margd
Jan 22, 2011, 2:48 pm

For his report, I think my nephew's interested in MLB ethical questions such as drugs, betting, etc., and so that is the kind of book I'm looking for.

This thread has given me all kinds of gift ideas, though, for books that would be well-received!

23waitingtoderail
Edited: Jan 22, 2011, 4:43 pm

margd, if he can do historic ethical questions in baseball as opposed to current day ones, A Well-Paid Slave, about Curt Flood's fight to choose who he played for, might be a good one, or Rickey and Robinson, about the breaking of the color barrier.

24JamesPaul977
Feb 1, 2011, 7:05 pm

The Meaning of Ichiro

Ya Gotta Have Wa

Fantasyland

25lindapanzo
Feb 7, 2011, 6:12 pm

Baseball and Philosophy sounds perfect.

Another possibility: The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America's Pastime by Jason Turbow.

26fdholt
Feb 7, 2011, 7:14 pm

Anything by David Voigt

27margd
Edited: Feb 9, 2011, 6:00 am

> 25

Looks like my nephew is beginning with The Baseball Codes. Hope he moves on to other book suggestions from this thread, which I've passed on--they all sound like good bets!

28torrey23
Feb 9, 2011, 12:52 pm

One of my favorite books is Baseball: An Illustrated History by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns. If Burns has a hand in it you can be sure that it will be good.

29Bigrider7
Feb 26, 2011, 10:58 am

I haven't read the Universal Baseball Association by Coover, but I still play dice and card baseball and absolutely need to read it!

My favorites are:
1) Jim Bouton Ball Four and Foul Ball
2) Philip Roth The Great American Novel
3) Phil and Joe Niekro The Niekro Files
4) Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract
5) Bill "Spaceman" Lee The Wrong Stuff
6) Warren Cromartie/Robert Whiting Slugging It Out in Japan
7) Sock it to 'em Tigers by Mark Pattison
8) Jeff Pearlman The Bad Guys Won
9) Tom Adelman The Long Ball
10) Robert Gordon/Tom Burgoyne More than Beards, Bellies, and Biceps

I also really want to read Cardboard Gods by Josh Wilker.

It is really endless, when it comes to baseball books. Denny MClain's I Told You I Wasn't Perfect was also an excellent read!